TLA profits grow as sports stars flock to agency

Oliver Smith is a senior reporter at The Memo, an online publication curious about the future of technology. He was formerly a reporter at City A.M.

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US golfer Jim Furyk is now among TLA’s client roste

AIM-LISTED sports agent TLA World­wide reported a seven per cent increase in revenues during the first half of the year, after strong performance in its sports marketing division.

Its roster of players grew to 461, including golfers Jim Furyk and Patrick Reed, both playing in the 2014 Ryder Cup next week.

Profit at the firm rose 11 per cent to $3.9m (£2.4m) on revenues of $10m during the six months to 30 June.

“We have a very solid underlying business that is seeing double digit growth in all of our key metrics,” TLA chief executive Michael Principe told City A.M.

“We’re expecting some step up in business as we move further into sports mar­keting – income from sports marketing increased 37 per cent during the last six months, which is a function of our investment in that space.”

The company’s wins during the first half also included being app­ointed exclusive commercial agents for the USA Rugby versus New Zea­land All Blacks match on 1 November in Chicago.

“We believe TLA is executing strongly on developing its Sports Marketing franchise, both geographically and across sports, while Baseball will benefit from higher TV revenues over the next few years,” said Numis analyst Paul Richards, who maintained a buy rating on the stock with a higher target price of 55p.